Summer Camp Island creator Julia Pott is sharing her disappointment with HBO Max’s decision to pull the series as part of an upcoming content purge in unscripted and animated genres.
“We worked for five years to make 100 episodes of animation,” Pott wrote on Twitter. “We worked late into the night, we let ourselves go, we were a family of hard working artists who wanted to make something beautiful, and HBO Max just pulled them all like we were nothing. Animation is not nothing!”
She also addressed the upcoming final season which was slated for release in 2023. “We worked through the pandemic to make 20 linear episodes that are our most beautiful work yet,” she said. “I cannot wait for you to see them. YOU WILL SEE THEM! I will not rest!”
HBO Max announced Wednesday that it planned to pull dozens of titles this upcoming week, including Summer Camp Island, Elllen’s Next Great Designer, The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo, among others. That would follow the removal of a number of other titles over the past few weeks including Craftopia,Camping, Mrs. Fletcher, Run and Vinyl.
The streamed revealed last week that it would pull back on unscripted and animated titles ahead of combining the service with Discovery+ next week, along with the layoffs of a number of staffers.
Storyboard artist Ryan Pequin, who also works on Close Enough and Infinity Train, both of which are on the HBO Max list to be pulled, revealed his frustration on Twitter. “We put…….. a lot of work into that,” he said of Summer Camp Island‘s final season. “Except for Regular Show and the current project I’m on, every single animated thing I have ever worked on is apparently getting disappeared for tax purposes. Can this possibly be accurate.”
Cole Sanchez, a voice actor on Summer Camp Island, shared his frustration that the team was not informed of the decision ahead of time. “We have a final season of Summer Camp that has not aired and to hear about this via Deadline with no information from the studio is very disappointing.”
Produced by Cartoon Network Studios, Summer Camp Island premiered in July 2018 and most recently aired its fifth season. The series follows the episodic adventures of Oscar and Hedgehog, both of whom are attending the eponymous summer camp. Pott, Kent Osborne and Sam Register served as executive producers.
We worked for 5 years to make 100 episodes of animation. We worked late into the night, we let ourselves go, we were a family of hard working artists who wanted to make something beautiful, and HBO MAX just pulled them all like we were nothing. Animation is not nothing!
— Julia Pott (@juliapott) August 18, 2022
we put…….. a lot of work into that
— Ryan Pequin (@ryanpequin) August 18, 2022
We have a final season of Summer Camp that has not aired and to hear about this via Deadline with no information from the studio is very disappointing. https://t.co/fAhNay5dhE
— Cole (@ColeSanchez) August 18, 2022